Thomas Rudd (1583?–1656) was an English military engineer and mathematician.
Life
The eldest son of Thomas Rudd of
Higham Ferrers,
Northamptonshire, he was born in 1583 or 1584. He served during his earlier years as a military engineer in the
Low Countries. On 10 July 1627,
King Charles I appointed him ‘chief engineer of all castles, forts, and fortifications within Wales,’ at a salary of £240 per annum. Subsequently, he was appointed the King's principal engineer for fortifications, and in 1635 he visited
Portsmouth in this capacity to settle a question between the governor and the admiralty as to the removal of some naval buildings which interfered with proposed fortifications. In 1638, he visited
Guernsey
Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency.
It is the second largest of the Channel Islands, ...
and
Jersey at the request of the governors,
Charles Danvers, Earl of Danby and
Sir Thomas Jermyn, to survey the castles on those islands and report upon them to the board of ordnance.
In February of the following year, Rudd petitioned the board of ordnance for the payment of arrears of salary; in June, the board recommended the petition to the council, mentioning Rudd's services. In April, having been employed in making a survey of the Portsmouth defences, he recommended that they should be reconstructed at an estimated cost of £4,956. In June, Rudd went to
Dover to superintend the repairs to the harbour and to the Archcliffe
bulwark or fort, and in October he reported to the council that the works were delayed for want of funds, and suggested that the revenues of the harbour, as well as the dues, should be devoted to the maintenance of the harbour and fort. To this, the council assented on 29 May 1640, and on 31 December following directed all mayors, sheriffs, and justices to impress workmen in and about London and elsewhere for the works at Dover, which had been entrusted to Rudd.
In October 1640, Rudd went to Portsmouth to finish the fortifications, on the special application of
Colonel Goring, the governor, and he divided his attention during 1641 between Portsmouth and Dover. The work at Portsmouth was retarded for want of funds, and in January 1642 the governor demanded stores, and leave to use materials for fortification, according to Rudd's survey of the previous year.
Rudd served as chief engineer on the Royalist side throughout the
First English Civil War, and in 1655, his estate at Higham Ferrers was decimated on an assessment for the payment of the militia, as a punishment for his adherence to the Royalist cause. He died in 1656, aged 72, and was buried in Higham Ferrers church, where several
epitaphs composed by himself were inscribed on his tomb.
Works
Rudd put his name to two texts on geometry, ''Practical Geometry, in two parts'' (London, 1650), and an edition of
Euclid's ''Elements'' under the title ''Euclides Elements of Geometry, the first six Books in a compendious form contrasted and demonstrated, whereunto is added the Mathematical Preface of Mr.
John Dee
John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...
'' (London, 1651), but both works show extensive appropriation (without attribution) from Dutch sources of the early 1600s. In particular, Rudd's selection of a hundred questions is largely, but not exclusively, culled from the compilation of
Sybrandt Hanszoon van Harlingen (Cardinael) (1578–1647), ''Hondert Geometrische Questien
Hundred Geometrical Problems', published c. 1612.
He wrote the supplement to ''The Compleat Body of the Art Military'', by Lieutenant-colonel
Richard Elton
Richard Elton (fl. 1650), was an English military writer.
Life
Elton was a native of Bristol. He was the son of Dr. Thomas Elton (died 1618), originally from Ledbury, Herefordshire and Jane Aston, daughter of Sir Edward Aston of Tixall, ...
, London, 1650; 2nd edit. 1659. This supplement consists of six chapters, dealing with the duties of officers, the marching of troops and the art of gunnery.
Sir James Turner, in his ''Pallas Armata'' (1683), refers to another work by Rudd on sieges; but this cannot now be traced.
* T. Rudd, ''Practical Geometry, in Two Parts: The first, Shewing how to perform four Species of Arithmetick, (viz. Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division,) together with Reduction, and the Rule of Proportion in figures. The Second, Containing A Hundred Geometrical Questions, with their Solutions and Demonstrations, some of them being performed Arithmetically, and others Geometrically, yet all without the help of algebra. A Worke very necessary for all Men, but principally for Surveyors of Land, Engineers, and all other Students in the Mathematicks.'' (Printed by Robert Leybourn for Robert Boydell and Samuel Satterthwaite, London, 1650); available a
Early English Books
Occult
Rudd has been claimed as an
occultist.
Peter J. French
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a sur ...
writes that he was "steeped in
hermeticism" and an admirer of Dee's ''
Monas Hieroglyphica
''Monas Hieroglyphica'' (or ''The Hieroglyphic Monad'') is a book by John Dee, the Elizabethan magus and court astrologer of Elizabeth I of England, published in Antwerp in 1564. It is an exposition of the meaning of an esoteric symbol that he in ...
''. Among the
Harleian manuscripts
The Harleian Library, Harley Collection, Harleian Collection and other variants ( la, Bibliotheca Harleiana) is one of the main "closed" collections (namely, historic collections to which new material is no longer added) of the British Library in ...
is a hermetic treatise that has been attributed to Rudd.
[Peter J. French, ''John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus'' (1984), note p. 172.] According to ''The Goetia of Dr. Rudd'' by occult author
Stephen Skinner and
David Rankine
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
, Rudd was at the centre of a group of angel magicians.
Family
Rudd was married three times:
*first, to Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Castle of
Glatton
Glatton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, some south-west of Peterborough, near the villages of Conington, Yaxley and Stilton. It lies in the non-metropolitan district of Huntingdonshire, which is part of Cambridges ...
,
Huntingdonshire;
*secondly, to Margaret, daughter of Edward Doyley of Overbury Hall,
Suffolk;
*and thirdly, to Sarah, daughter of John Rolt of
Milton Ernes
Milton Ernest is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, about north of Bedford itself. It had a population of 754 in 2001. This had risen to 761 according to the 2011 census.//www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Lea ...
,
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council was ...
.
He left an only daughter, Judith, by his third wife; she married, first a kinsman, Anthony Rudd, and secondly, Goddard Pemberton, and died on 23 March 1680.
References
*
* M. H. Sitters
Sybrandt Hansz. Cardinael (1578-1647). Een eigenzinnig meetkundige tussen Stevin en Huygens
Notes
External links
*
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudd, Thomas
1580s births
1656 deaths
Magicians from the Kingdom of England
Mathematicians from the Kingdom of England
Expatriates of the Kingdom of England in the Dutch Republic